Sporting Review. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1892.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume III, Issue 113, 22 September 1892, Page 4

Sporting Review. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1892.

It was only to be expected that the new regulations imposed at the Conference of Metropolitan Clubs would lead to a lot of grumbling on the part of those affected by the rule as to the twenty mile radius and the general increase in the amount of added money required to be given. We have already expressed our opinion that in raising the minimum for a single meeting per annum from the Metropolitan Clubs have been too severe, and we adhere to that opinion ; but in other respects we agree with the work done by the delegates who sat in Wellington a fortnight back. But whatever they had done there would in any case have been found some representatives of country clubs ready to take up arms against them and, in good set terms, to declaim against what they ate

pleased to designate as the “ arbitrary action ” of the Metropolitan Clubs. They will not admit that a governing body of some sort is a necessity to the well-being of the sport of racing in our midst. Neither will they recognise that, unless some brake power is applied by a governing body of some kind the Legislature will have no alternative but to step in and sweep the totalisator off the face of our racing world. But while we advocate, and shall never cease to advocate, the necessity for the existence of “powers that be” like our Metropolitan Racing Clubs, we shall never be found backward in exposing any abuse of power which they may exhibit or any inconsistencies they may be guilty of. One of the first of the representatives of a country racing club that has taken up the cudgels against the Metropolitan Clubs over their most recent enactments is Mr. E. W. Alison, the chairman of the Takapuna Jockey Club, who delivered himself on the subject at length at the annual meeting of the Takapuna Jockey Club last week, as will be seen by the full report of his speech appearing in another column of this issue. And we are forced to say that though we do not agree with all Mr. Alison said, we will admit that he made more than one good “point” against the Auckland Racing Club. His speech would have been more effective, perhaps, had it not been so liberally garnished with allusions to the Metropolitan Club of the Auckland Provincial District and if in certain portions there was not evidence that a strong feeling of jealousy to the A.R.C. animates the presiding genius of the Takapuna Jockey Club. Mr. Alison decidedly “ scores one” when in the opening sentences of his speech he shows how the Auckland Racing Club by holding six race-meetings last season deliberately broke its own rules. The accusation is a true one, and is one that is likely to be trotted out, whenever it serves a useful purpose, for many years to come. But the circumstances which prompted the A.R.C. to break their own rules, namely, their desire to pay a well deserved compliment to the Earl of Onslow on his departure from the colony, can never be forgotten, and we are sure that the great bulk of the racing community of New Zealand have considered the A.R.C.’s action justified by extraordinary circumstances, and have forgiven the laches they were guilty of. Mr. Alison is quite right in saying that “ the Metropolitan Club should be an example to minor clubs, and should be consistent and praiseworthy in its action,” and we hope we shall always find that such is the case with all our Metropolitan Clubs, though we must say that in the past we have found some of them somewhat inconsistent, especially in dealing with pony racing and trotting. Mr. Alison makes the usual ad misericordiam appeal to the racing community, the refrain of which has for some time past been very familiar in our ears —that the Metropolitan Clubs desire to wipe out as many of the subordinate clubs as they can. Now he must know, as a racing man, that there is no such “ desire ” on the part of the Metropolitan Clubs. All they wish to do is to restrict the number of unnecessary or undesirable meetings, and as Mr. Alison himself rightly says, “ it is generally admitted that it is necessary to curtail the number of race meetings—that it is desirable in the interests of all connected with racing and the public.” We are quite at one with Mr. Alison in his declaration that “ a limited number of legitimate well-conducted suburban and country meetings should be fostered and encouraged,” and from what we know of the constitution of the committees of our Metropolitan Clubs, we are sure that nothing is further from their intentions than to quash any legitimate racing institution. But the signs in the air during the present session of Parliament were too patent to be allowed to pass unheeded. That close division on Mr. W. C. Smith’s motion for the abolition of the totalisator; the attacks made on it by other members of the House of Representatives ; the outcry against the nj per cent, commission charged by some clubs ; and the declaration of the Premier, which, in effect, amounted to a statement that if the Metropolitan Clubs did not interfere to check the excess of racing and the abuse of the totalisator, the Legislature would be compelled to interfere—these were the things that made the Metropolitan Clubs arouse themselves and frame the regulations which were the outcome of the Conference that sat in Wellington the other day. But while reiterating our approval of the major part of the business they then transacted, we again express

our opinion that it would tend to the fostering of far more amicable relations between the Metropolitan Clubs and the racing bodies under their jurisdiction if some arrangement could be devised by which country clubs who, say, hold three days’ racing in the year, could be represented at future Conferences and have a voice in the framing of the laws which govern them. It would be impossible for every small club to be represented, but the status of clubs holding three days’ racing in the year is sufficient, in our opinion, to warrant their being represented at future Conferences We hope to see such a provision inserted at no distant date in the Rules of Racing.

In local circles there has been a good deal of agitation and argument with reference to the action of the Auckland Racing Club’s Committee in declining to pass the programme of the Thames Jockey Club’s Summer Meeting because that Club had chosen Boxing Day and the day following, and Boxing Day is the first day of the Auckland Racing Club’s Summer Meeting. We have in previous issues commended the Auckland Racing Club’s Committee for the action they took in asking clubs to apply for dates for the meetings they intended holding during the season, so that the Metropolitan Club might allot dates and prevent undue clashing, and we hope other Metropolitan Clubs will follow their example in other respects, but we fail to see why the Auckland Racing Club should arrogate to themselves the exclusive right to Boxing Day, The Thames Jockey Club is one of the oldest established racing institutions in New Zealand, and it has for several years held races on Boxing Day. The Thames is about forty miles from Auckland, and it is therefore hard to see in what way its race meeting can clash with the more important one at Ellerslie, but some of the A.R.C.’s people seem to have become imbued with the idea that the fact of the Thames races being held on Boxing Day interferes with the A.R.C.’s gate-money returns, in so far that the Thames sportsmen will not take steamer to Auckland when they can see racing at their own door. The argument seems to us a thoroughly selfish one, and we extremely regret that it has ever been imported into the question. If this be the basis on which the A.R.C. have founded their objection to the Thames’ folk racing on Boxing Day, we shall never more be surprised to hear some Metropolitan Clubs twitted with “ selfishness” — pace Mr. E. W. Alison. The Thames people are, we understand, addressing a strong remonstrance to the A.R.C. on the subject of the treatment dealt out to them. They talk of abandoning racing at the Thames altogether after the adverse reception they have met with from the A.R.C. We do not think that in any case they need go so far as that, for there are several suitable dates to be found in the calendar besides Boxing Day. But that the Thames people have had a right to Boxing Day for a great many years past cannot be gainsaid, and therefore we hope the A.R.C. Committee will reconsider their harsh decision and allow the T.J.C. to have their annual holiday outing on that date. The money question should not be thought of for a moment, and even if it were pertinent to the subject at issue, we doubt if, from a financial point of view, the Thames meeting hurts the Auckland Racing Club’s Summer gathering to any material extent.

The Metropolitan Clubs’ Committees, who have so far held meetings for the passing of programmes since the Rules of Racing came into force, have not been backward in seeing that the Rules are strictly complied with, and that unnecessary or undesirable meetings are relegated to limbo. More than one club has been “ passed out ” —and a good job in most cases ; in districts where two clubs exist in very contiguous localities, one has received its quietus, and more than one programme has been sent back to .the club from which it emanated with a polite request for an answer to certain questions as to finances—what has become of the profits in the past and what is to become of them in the future ? As the proceedings of committee meetings of all the Metropolitan Clubs are conducted in private and the results of their deliberations only furnished to the Press through the medium of each club’s secretary, we are not in a position to state the grounds which have actuated some committees in rejecting certain programmes or insisting on their amendment. It is to be hoped that the secretary of each Metropolitan Club has furnished any club whose pro-

gramme has been so rejected or amended with full and sufficient reasons for his committee’s action. It is as well to leave no opportunity open for the minor clubs to complain of the “ arbitrary action” of the Metropolitan Clubs, which they will be entitled to do if they are, while not having a say in the rules which govern them, not fully informed of the reasons which have actuated the Metropolitan Clubs Committees in their decision. And it would also be as well if the members of-ithe sporting Press were informed thereof also. We throw out the hint for the benefit of the various Metropolitan Clubs’ committeemen and secretaries.